New Delhi, January 24 (IANS). India’s QR code based digital payment system Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is now rapidly expanding beyond the country’s borders. According to a report, Japan is among the countries where preparations are being made to launch UPI for Indian tourists.
Nikkei Asia report states that Japanese IT services company NTT Data and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) together are going to trial UPI in Japan in the financial year 2026, under which Indian tourists will be able to make payments through UPI in Japan and the money will be directly debited from their Indian bank accounts.
The report said that both the companies are working on ways to connect the payment systems of Japan and India.
This step is being taken keeping in mind the rapidly increasing number of Indian tourists visiting Japan. About 3.15 lakh Indian tourists are expected to reach Japan in the year 2025, which is 35 percent more than last year.
According to the report, McKinsey has estimated that the number of outbound travelers from India could increase from 13 million in 2022 to 90 million by 2040. The reason for this is the increase in the income of the middle class and the increasing desire to travel abroad.
UPI is a government initiative started in 2016, and today it has become a part of people’s everyday life. With the help of UPI, money transaction can be done through different payment apps with the same QR code.
UPI transactions increased by 42 percent in FY 2024 to reach 185.8 billion. In June 2025, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) described UPI as the world’s largest real-time payment system.
NPCI and the Government of India have so far launched UPI in eight countries, including Bhutan, Singapore, France, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates. Apart from this, countries like Peru and Namibia are also being helped in creating similar payment systems.
The report said that the reason for the rapid popularity of UPI in India is its being a common platform on which banks and fintech companies build their payment apps.
By 2024, 58 percent of payments at stores in India will be through UPI and it is estimated that this figure will reach 76 percent by 2030. Whereas cash transactions may reduce from 15 percent to 7 percent.
NTT Data, which is set to connect merchants in Japan to UPI, already offers payments services in India and Southeast Asia. The company’s services are being used by about 60 lakh shops in India, which also includes online businesses.
–IANS
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